We all met back in front of the tea store outside college. Xiaopan already left for the train terminal. Lanyard and Chief ran back together.
"Did you find him?" Lanyard asked anxiously. Her restrain and elegance was no longer in display, she looked ready to pull her hair out. As I shook my head to signify I hadn't, she squat down on the pavement suddenly, hiding her head in her arms. Chief squatted down beside her to pat her head and reassure her that they would find him but there were no end to Lanyard's tears.
Looking at her crying made Chief's eyes turn red too as she turned to me, like she was asking me what we should do now. I had nothing to say, there was nothing I could think about right now. I couldn't even begin to imagine what these two must be going through right now. Chief had been friends with Hacker since they were children while Lanyard had feelings for him. Though he is my good friend too, I couldn't even begin to compare with these two. We all sat down on the pavement, I drank down the bottle of water I bought from the grocery shop while holding the other two, doing my best distract myself from the two women crying beside me. I couldn't console them, I didn't know how to.
Lanyard's phone rang. She hurriedly stopped crying as she picked up the call.
"Hello?"
"Yes, Mr Zhao. This is Lian Qian. I am Ju Linping's friend. There have been some complications at his house and we have been unable to reach him. Has he reported to your base earlier by any chance?"
"Oh…are you sure?" Lanyard's voice choked again which told us that the answer must have not been satisfactory. I took the phone from her to talk to the man as Lanyard started crying again.
"Sorry for that Mr. Zhao. Can you inform us if you hear from him? It's really important." I said. Some other day I would have been excited to be talking to the young mysterious owner of the Zephyr team who I knew for a fact was also a postgraduate student studying for a doctorate in our college as Hacker had told me once, but right now I had other concerns.
The man was silent for a few moments before he sighed. "Did he run away from home?"
Looks like Hacker must have informed them about his family conditions but I didn't know for sure so I stayed quiet.
"Where are you all?"
"Outside our college. Near the tea store."
"Okay, wait for me. Get me a laptop."
He hung up after saying that I stayed silent beside both of them. My phone vibrated, it was a text message from Qiu Zhoufan.
FanFan: How is it? Did you find him?
Cupid: Not yet.
FanFan: Should you call the police?
Cupid: Haven't decided yet.
FanFan: It's late. You're not coming back?
I sighed. I don't know what would make her stop.
Cupid: Go to sleep.
I turned my phone off and continued to wait with Lanyard and Chief.
"Who checked the tea store?" Chief suddenly asked. We all looked at each other alarmed suddenly realizing that we had been sitting in front of one of our hangouts for a whole hour now without checking it. We all stood up and rushed inside, desperately looking around to find Hacker not there either.
That short spurt of hope did nothing but make us plunge down further. Lanyard started sobbing absolutely distraught making the few people in the store turn to look at her alarmed.
"Qiu Yu, Lian Qian, what's wrong?" Xiao Jie came to us from one of the tables. Ling Bingchen and another guy that had large eyes and chibi like face followed. I don't know why but all this time I had been pretty collected. Even when we were out of ideas, when I ran from one cyber café to the other, when I had to ask perverted uncles who looked at me like I was fresh meat, if they had seen my friend or not, I hadn't been bothered. Nor did I care when I sat down on the pavement with my friends who were crying out their helplessness, I was still okay as I stared around in daze thinking about what I should do. But as I looked at Ling Bingchen, suddenly my eyes stung and I sniffed, trying my best not to tear up, looking up with my hands in my pocket, trying to send my tears back into their ducts.
"Senior Xiao, Hacker is missing!" Lanyard cried, "What to do? He's run away from home and won't pick up our calls, nor can we find him anywhere. What if he got into some trouble?"
Xiao Jie had always been like a brother to Lanyard, even though they got close strictly because each wanted something for the other but they had somehow become a source of each other's support and motivation. So when Lanyard saw Xiao Jie, it was like she found a place to vent. Lanyard started hyperventilating and Xiao Jie cautiously hugged her to pat her back and turned to look at me. Ling Bingchen, however, stood in front of me cutting off Senior Xiao's line of sight. I looked up at him silently.
"Are you okay?" I nodded my head.
"Have you called the police?"
"Not yet. This isn't the first time he's run away but he always comes to one of us or at least tells us. This is the first time he's gone off silently." Chief answered by my side. But Ling Bingchen continued to look at me. Suddenly he held out a hand and held my palm, squeezing it briefly before just holding it and leading me towards the table.
"All of you sit down and let's discuss. We'll help you." Ling Bingchen took a seat beside me and Chief flanked my other side. Senior Xiao held Lanyard's shoulder and passed her tissues as she calmed down after finally venting.
"I'll go order something for everyone," the chibi faced boy said.
"Order three cups of chamomile tea."Ling Bingchen decided when he saw none of us were in a state to think about what to order.
Very soon the chibi faced dude came back with three steaming cups and passed it to us.
"Here drink this and calm your nerves. One grown man, we can definitely find him."
"How?" Chief asked which made the chibi faced man askance.
"This Hacker is Ju Linping right?" he asked. We all nodded.
"Actually my girlfriend is part of his fan club. Have you contacted them? These girls are scary good at keeping track of their gods."
"But Senior isn't that illegal stalking?" I asked hesitantly. This fan club or whatever was something the even Hacker, much less us, was uneasy about. It's not like he was some celebrity or public figure, he was just one of the students in the same University. Now going to ask the very people we had looked down upon for help seems pretty shameless.
Ling Bingchen suddenly patted my head, pushing the cup of tea in front of me while whispering at me to drink. I am ashamed to say that even in this kind of a moment of crisis my brain absolutely went blank, refusing to function. I could only shakily pick the cup up and blow on it to bring it to room temperature.
"Sulan, contact your girlfriend and ask her to find out where Ju Linping was seen last. Tell her to just find out but not tell anyone anything to alarm them." Ling Bingchen said. The man, Sulan, ran out with his phone.
"Senior, we've already checked the campus though." Chief trailed.
"I know but if they haven't seen him around here then that means he didn't come back to college at all. So then we will be able to look elsewhere." Xiao Jie explained.
"So now what?"
"Now, we wait."